Collect Her
"Collect Her" is a Season 2 episode of The Powerpuff Girls. Plot Comic book geek Lenny Baxter is a huge Powerpuff Girls fanboy, having amassed an impressive array of Powerpuff merchandise. He comes home one day after making his latest purchase, a poseable Blossom doll, and catalogs the purchase in his computer, only to be surprised and horrified when a message pops up to notify him that his collection is complete. Distressed, Baxter looks about his house and double-checks his entire inventory, and to his horror, he realizes that he has collected every piece of Powerpuff merchandise known to man: dolls, hand-carved furniture, deli selections, housewares, and even printed material make up his vast collection. He is still far from happy, as since collecting Powerpuff merchandise is his life and his collection is complete, he doesn't know what else to do, as what he has just isn't enough. His next campaign for Powerpuff-related memorabilia takes him to the Powerpuff Girls' own home, where he starts by stealing things the girls own such as Bubbles' artwork, a side of beef with which Buttercup exercises, Blossom's hair clip, Bubbles' Octi doll, a photograph of the Professor and the girls, and even the hotline. When that fails to fulfill his need to collect, he goes to the extreme and lures the girls themselves. During a patrol flight, he fakes a distress call to lead them to his apartment, where they observe the shrine he built of them. Upon his introduction to the girls, he traps them inside his "Power Packages," and they cry for help, getting the attention of the Professor. As the Professor reports to the Mayor that the girls are missing, he calls an emergency assembly of the citizens of Townsville to the town square to enlist their aid. After a quick assessment of the people, the Mayor deduces that Lenny Baxter is behind the girls' recent disappearance, causing all of Townsville to rise up against him to rescue their heroes. The citizens' calls for justice lead them to Baxter's apartment, where a showdown between him and the Professor is imminent. However, a child comes to note a limited-edition trilingual talking Powerpuff doll, which aren't even available for sale anymore. Baxter tells him that that was because he himself bought them all, and goes on to explain that he refuses to open them. Toys are not simply playthings to him, but an investment, and opening their containers would ruin their collectability. His explanation subsequently inspires the Professor to proceed with opening one of his other Powerpuff toys, which appears to heavily psychologically damage Baxter, to try to get him to release the girls. But as he resists, he and the other children unwrap more and more of Baxter's toy collection. Tortured by what he feels has happened to his collection, he eventually submits and allows the Professor and the citizens to free the girls, but not before receiving a lecture on what it is to have true fandom. Defeated and having lost his entire collection, Baxter is then put in a larger collection... for criminals. And so, for the very first time, the day is saved, thanks to the citizens of Townsville - collect 'em all! Quotes : Buttercup: (angry) You stole my side of beef! : Bubbles: (angry) I did not! I'm a vegetarian! Besides, you took my drawing! : Blossom: (brushing her hair) Geez, is that all you two do?! Just blame one another for everything?! (puts her hairbrush down and looks around dresser) (gets angry) Alright, which one of you took my hairclip!? : : : Mayor: Uh…well…then the only other person it could be is…Lenny Baxter, the Comic Book Geek! GET HIM!!! : : : Lenny: ' Huh, duh! Hello! (''knocking on kid’s head) Earth to kid! (Close-up of him, panning slowly to the box.) Toys are not for playing with. They are an investment. And opening the container of said item would dramatically decrease its collector’s value! : : : 'Professor: '''You mean like— (''Cut to him, hand poised on the box top) this? : : Allusions *The Simpsons' - The villain Lenny Baxter was based on the Comic Book Guy. **Craig McCracken is a fan of ''The Simpsons. Trivia *Many items of Powerpuff merchandise featured in the episode were later produced and sold. *When the Mayor is taking a "roll call" of Townsville's citizens to try and determine by process of elimination who is missing (and therefore, the girls' abductor), one of the names he calls is "Gennedy McCracken," a combination of the first name of the show's animation director (Gennedy Tartakovsky) and the last name if its creator (Craig McCracken). *This episode was based on the Stephen King novel, Misery, which it was adapted to a film directed by Rob Reiner and starring James Caan and Kathy Bates two years later. *The girls (except for Bubbles) were creeped out by Lenny Baxter's collection of Powerpuff Girls toys, products, and merchandises. It possible that neither of them knew about any of these toys and merchandises that were based on them, which it would be a crime to make any merchandises based on celebrities, popular TV shows and movies without permission and approval first. *Although this is Lenny Baxter's first and only major appearance, he used to appear on Cartoon Network's Cartoon Cartoon Fridays. *This is the second episode where the girls don't save the day, first being Just Another Manic Mojo. *This is one of the few episodes which ends with the narrator saying his catchphrase differently, and the first episode to have the citizens of Townsville save the day. This happens again in Too Pooped to Puff. * Lenny Baxter can be seen in the opening sequence. * This episode was released the same day Warner Bros. "The Iron Giant" was released in theaters. ** Coincidentally, said film aired on the final day of Toonami's Trapped in Hyperspace event, which this episode aired on the first day of. TOM mentioned that he thought Lenny Baxter was an exaggerated parody of him. Errors * When Blossom hears Lenny's cry for help and says "Someone’s in trouble!", her mouth isn't moving. * Bubbles claims that she's a vegetarian but she is shown eating meat in other episodes such as Child Fearing where she gave a taste to Mojo Jojo's shrimp, Reeking Havoc where she tasted Professor Utonium's Chili, Oops, I Did It Again where she eats a Sloppy Joe, Not So Awesome Blossom where she is holding a hot dog, Slave the Day where she has meat on her plate, and Beat Your Greens where she helped eat the Broccoloids. Category:Episodes Category:Season 2 Category:Episodes where The Powerpuff Girls do not save the day Category:Episodes storyboarded by Chris Savino Category:Episodes directed by John McIntyre Category:Episodes directed by Craig McCracken Category:1999 episodes Category:Episodes written by Amy Keating Rogers